European Policy
Data Science
Network
About us
We are convinced that data science will be an essential tool for understanding and supporting policy making in the 21st century. While the private sector is increasingly investing in data science capabilities, governments, think tanks and NGOs are only now starting to discover these tools. They lack best practices, training and a community for data scientists working on policy issues.
We have founded the European Policy Data Science Network to fill this gap in Europe. Our network brings together data-driven researchers from European think tanks and NGOs supporting and researching public policy.
We organise regular meetings to:
● Exchange best practices
● Organise trainings
● Promote the use of data science
● Build a community for mutual support
The network is organized by Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (Berlin) and the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS, Brussels) together with members from diverse backgrounds, working for a wide range of organisations. If you are applying data science methods to policy issues in a think tank, public institution or NGO, contact us! Whether you are an experienced programmer or are just getting started, we would love to hear from you and integrate you into our network.
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Our activities
Exchange
best practices
Each member has gathered valuable experience on different challenges, from choosing appropriate methods, organising data science workflows, to building up data science teams. We learn from each other’s successes and mistakes.
Organise
trainings
There are many ingredients for a successful data science project which most people do not learn at university. We organise trainings to learn more about relevant methods, from web scraping to version control, from data visualisation to legal issues.
Promote
data science
Many organisations are unaware of the value data science could add for them. We promote a realistic understanding of the benefits and shortcomings of data science tools.
Build
a community
We are building a community of like-minded people interested in data and political issues. Our Slack channel provides a platform to exchange ideas, find cooperation partners and ask for help.
Discussion of the main goals of the network, followed by a presentation of an analysis of 140 000 EU laws by CEPS.
Each member presented and discussed key data science projects and lessons they have learned.
Each member presented and discussed how data science work is structured in their organisation.
Ilja Sperling provided a training on data science workflows from web scraping, data preparation, automatic updates to visualisation.
Several members presented data visualisation projects and the pros/cons of tools like Flourish, Plotly, Dash and AWS.
Alex Engler (Brookings Institution) presented example projects and best practices for policy data science in the USA.
Anna Semenova (SNV) provided an introduction to Git and the importance of version control.
The Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) presents their Emerging Technology Observatory (ETO).
As several new members joined over the past months, we organised a get-to-know session with several group discussions.
Johannes Müller (&effect) presented their jobmonitor.de and lessons from founding a data science start-up for the public/social sector.
Members work at the following institutions
Contact us
If you want to learn more about our activities or join the network, do not hesitate to contact us. Our members are individuals working with data science methods in think tanks, public institutions and NGOs. Whether you are just starting to collect, analyse or visualise data, or you are already more experienced, we look forward to hearing from you.
contact@policydatascientists.eu
Pegah Maham
Stiftung Neue Verantwortung
Berlin
Moritz Laurer
Center for European Policy Studies
Brussels